Modi Men Point Finger At NSA Ajit Doval

Sun, 10 Jan 2016 14:04:38 IST

New Delhi: Jan 10; For the first time, murmurs against "powerful" national security adviser Ajit Doval are being heard in saffron corridors. Fingers are also being pointed at him by a section of ministers in the Modi Cabinet for intelligence failure and lack of response.

A section in the party and in the government holds him responsible for leading the government to believe that the Pathankot operation was successful much before it was even over. The terrorist attack at the airbase has apparently exposed chinks in the armour of Mr Doval, touted as "India's own 007". A section of top saffron functionaries is seething that it was because of "Doval's inputs" that the government jumped the gun and tweeted to "congratulate" the armed forces on the first day of the attack (January 2) and eventually was left red-faced.

Mr Doval was also hauled up by BJP leaders for calling in the NSG. Experts pointed out that the NSG "might not have been the ideal choice for the exercise as it is an intervention force trained and tasked to handle a crisis, not to protect an airbase or ambush terrorists before they arrived". It was felt that the operations could have been more efficient if the Army or pararmilitary units familiar with the terrain were used.